TORONTO —
If it was any other year, Niagara Falls, Ont. would be bustling right about now.
The combination of it being March Break in many jurisdictions and the city’s status as a tourism hotspot would have families flooding its streets, jamming its restaurants and filling its hotels.
That’s hardly the case this year. The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted warnings for everyone to cancel their vacations and stay home – and if Niagara Falls is any indication, those messages are being heeded.
Mayor Jim Diodati told CTV News Channel on Thursday that the city resembles a “ghost town,” with few people venturing out into the usually busy commercial areas.
“The casinos, major attractions, all the restaurants – everything’s closed down,” he said.
“Niagara Falls is the No. 1 leisure destination in all of Canada – and to see it so quiet right now, it’s definitely concerning.”
Diodati said 40,000 jobs in the Niagara Falls area are dependent on tourism. Many of those workers have already been laid off. More certainly will be in the near future.
But the cause for concern extends far beyond the tourism industry. The Canada-U.S. border is expected to close to all non-essential traffic within the coming days. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday that the closure appears likely to happen late Friday night or early Saturday morning. It is not at all clear how long it will last, or which travellers will be considered essential.
In Niagara Falls, which has two border crossings into New York state, that’s creating significant anxiety about the fates of those who might live in one country and work in the other.
“Everybody right now is just kind of bracing, not sure what to expect,” Diodati said.
Similar fears are playing out in border towns across Canada, including 400 kilometres west of Niagara Falls in Windsor, Ont, where Mayor Drew Dilkens says it’s not uncommon for residents to drive through the busiest Canada-U.S. border crossing and go for lunch in neighbouring Detroit.
Dilkens told CTV News Channel that Windsorites are unsure how to handle the “conflicting recommendations” they’re hearing from Canadian and American authorities.
“There’s still some confusion for people who cross, whether you’re an essential worker or not,” he said Thursday.
According to Dilkens, 6,000 Windsorites cross into Detroit for work purposes every day, many of them to work in the American health-care system.
A border closure of this magnitude is unprecedented in modern Canadian history. The Windsor-Detroit crossing was shut down for a period of time in 1967 due to rioting in Detroit, but the rest of the border was not affected by that.
The closest example in recent history is the full closure that was enacted after the 9/11 attacks in 2001, which was followed by weeks of hours-long waits at land crossings due to enhanced security protocols. At that time, Dilkens said, there were conversations about using helicopters or boats to ferry hospital workers and other essential personnel across the border.
“The hospitals over there are absolutely reliant on the health-care workers from our community,” he said.
Diodati notes one important distinction between the 9/11 closure and the impending one: In 2001, the border was reopened within hours; this time around, the closure will be much longer.
“It was more of a ripple. This one’s more of a tidal wave,” he said.
Officials in American border towns say they noticed a significant drop in Canadian traffic well before Wednesday’s announcement.
“The loss of tourists and cross-border shoppers – we’ve already felt that,” Garry Douglas from the North County Chamber of Commerce in Plattsburgh, N.Y. told CTV News Montreal.
There are other issues, too. Trudeau has said that Canadian citizens will be allowed to cross the closed border to return home. Some border cities are much closer to major American airports than major Canadian ones, and it’s not clear if Canadians will be allowed to cross into the U.S. to retrieve family members from the airport.
One community in New Brunswick is facing a unique problem, as the closed border could potentially impact firefighting efforts.
St. Stephen, N.B. and Calais, Maine have an agreement that allows their firefighters to respond to emergencies on either side of the border.
Sean Morton, the fire chief in St. Stephen, told CTV News Atlantic that firefighters will still be able to get across the border after it closes – but only if they first ditch their personal vehicles, which they are normally able to use.
“If we’re going to be making a run to Calais, the firefighters are going to have to come to the station, get on an engine, and go,” he said.
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